Salem Public Library, Oregon community building, USA architecture design photos
24 October 2023
Design: Hacker
Location: Salem, Oregon, USA
Photos by Lara Swimmer
Salem Public Library, USA
The Salem Public Library’s downtown location was due for a renovation to bring its structural resilience and building systems up to modern standards. The 96,000-square-foot concrete structure was originally designed by in 1970 by San Francisco architect George Rockrise with Salem architect of record Donald Richardson and built in 1972. It underwent an expansion in 1990. After 50 years, the building was in need of seismic upgrades, accessibility improvements and life-safety updates. The city and library saw this as a rare chance to address some of the additional challenges encountered by staff and library patrons in their aging concrete building and outdated spaces. In an era when Brutalist architecture…
